This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Much to the gold medallists’ embarrassment, however, an elusive five-hole goal cost them their advantage. Not only did they not win the leg; they finished just two spots from the bottom of the pack.

And their earlier Express Pass handover put twins Pierre and Michel in first place for the first time.

Article Continued Below

Meanwhile, we lost one of my favourite teams on Tuesday, ballet great Rex Harrington and his fiancé Bob Hope.

Rex’s superior skills as a ballet performer didn’t transfer over to being a faux glam rock star in the Road Block and bartender buddies Ryan and Rob edged past them.

Seven teams flew from Whitehorse, Yukon, to Winnipeg at the start of the leg. Everybody was on the same flight, routed through Vancouver, and everybody was at the provincial legislature at 6 the next morning to get at the clue box, so no advantage there.

The location had special resonance for siblings Sukhi and Jinder because Winnipeg was where their father landed when he emigrated from India.

But at first it looked like it would be an unlucky leg for the frequently hapless team as their cab was the last to arrive at the Royal Canadian Mint (took the scenic route, I guess).

The challenge there was to take 10 international coins (host Jon Montgomery told us the mint has produced coins for 72 countries) and match them to the flags that fly on the factory grounds.

Meaghan and Natalie finished the task first and leapt back into first place. Shockingly, Sukhi and Jinder finished next. Guess all that international travel they’ve done served them well.

Dating couple Alain and Audrey were next to clear the mint, followed by Rex and Bob, Pierre and Michel, besties Mickey and Pete, and Ryan and Rob.

Next stop was Portage and Main, called the windiest and coldest intersection in the country, for a clue to the Detour: Puck It or Pinch It.

To Puck It, teams had to go to the MTS Centre, home of the Winnipeg Jets, stickhandle the puck between four cones and score five goals in five different parts of the net, including the notorious “five hole” (the space between the goalie’s legs).

To Pinch It, teams had to go to St. Ivan Suchavsky Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral and make 74 “perfectly pinched” perogies in the church basement.

Well, duh, Natalie and Meaghan chose Puck It, as did Pierre and Michel, Mickey and Pete, and Sukhi and Jinder, even though Sukhi had never skated before.

Rex and Bob, and Ryan and Rob chose Pinch It.

Alain and Audrey were all set to Puck It until they realized that the Olympians hadn’t grabbed the Fast Forward that was also available in the clue envelope. The Fast Forward can help a team get ahead, but it can also leave them far behind if they don’t complete the task, so it’s a risk.

Alain and Audrey were willing to chance it and headed to The Cube, a building in the Exchange District, where they were directed to find seven vintage commercial signs on the sides of buildings in a six-block area that was full of them and fill in missing words from each sign on a piece of paper.

Back at the MTS Centre, the Olympians aced their first four goals but hadn’t yet scored the five hole. By then, Sukhi and Jinder had arrived (Sukhi could barely move in skates let alone score), then the twins and the dudes (Mickey and Pete, that is).

Michel scored the five hole on his first shot; Natalie missed it again on the 39th. “I suck at hockey,” she said as mascot Mick E. Moose clutched his head in disbelief.

The brothers made all five goals in 11 shots; the ladies missed again on their 46th.

“We were faster than two Olympic gold medallists,” crowed Michel.

They weren’t the only ones. Mickey and Pete got the five hole on shot 9.

Finally, at 57 shots, Natalie hit the spot.

The only thing that would have made it worse would have been Sukhi and Jinder finishing before them. That didn’t happen, but the siblings needed just 39 shots to get five goals, still less than the Olympians. They took particular satisfaction in the task. “Our father’s dream was for us to be Canadian and, seriously, you can’t get any more Canadian than hockey,” Sukhi said.

All the Puck It teams headed to the Whiskey Dix bar for their Road Block. One team member had to dress like a rock star, memorize lyrics and perform a rock song in front of a crowd.

Rex and Bob, and Ryan and Rob were still in the church basement, learning the finer points of how much filling to put in a perogy and how to pinch it so the sides stayed closed. “It’s a really big finger workout,” said Rob.

If nothing else, Rex and Bob were charming the white-haired women in the kitchen. “We have to start seducing Helen a little more,” said Rex, about the woman Bob called the “perogy pooh-bah.”

“I like his style,” one of the women laughed.

After a couple of tries, Rex and Bob got their 74 “perfect” perogies and headed to Whiskey Dix.

Pierre and Michel were long gone by then. Pierre decided he’d never be able to memorize the English lyrics to the song (“When the Sun Goes Down” it was called) and so he and his brother used their express pass and headed straight for the Pit Stop, at the top of the 330-foot Tower of Hope at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

Mickey and Jinder had also sung and gone when Rex and Bob arrived. Mickey, who had an awful voice and wore “booty shorts” to perform, bodysurfed into the crowd after getting it on his fifth attempt. “I had to kiss a few babes on the way out and then I was like, ‘Not now, babes, got to go see my boyfriend Jon Montgomery,’” he joked.

Jinder, whose fourth try was declared “pretty great,” finished ahead of Natalie, who needed five tries to get the lyrics right.

She and Meaghan were leaving just as Rex and Bob were coming, which left the fiancés hopeful they weren’t at the back of the pack.

Alas, Ryan and Rob arrived while Rex was still trying and failing to remember the lyrics, getting booed off the stage each time.

“I will do anything to win,” Rob declared. Tossing his pink wig and shimmying in his pink leopard-print pants and gold leopard shirt, he nailed the song on his first try.

Rex got through it on his sixth try. By then, Pierre and Michel had already made the exhausting climb to the top of the Tower of Hope and won the leg plus an Air Canada all-inclusive vacation to Los Cabos, Mexico, and $3,000 on their Amazing Race Amex card.

Alain and Audrey, who had finally found their last sign in the Fast Forward, came second, followed by Mickey and Pete, Sukhi and Jinder, Natalie and Meaghan, and Ryan and Rob: Rob still in his guyliner.

Rex and Bob had no idea they were last. “We’re third?” Rex wondered in the cab. And their response to being told they were last was “Really?”

But they took their elimination in good humour. “We got to see Canada and do some amazing stuff, so we’re happy,” said Rex.

“Darling, if I may,” he told Amanda Green, the tutu-wearing Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancer standing next to Jon, and then lifted her in a ballet pose. Exit stage left.

Next week, the six remaining teams head to Normandy, France. There’s a Detour that involves braiding horses’ manes and then what Montgomery calls a “relentless Road Block.” Most significantly, the teams visit the graves of Canadian war dead and I would strongly advise having tissues nearby for that.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com